Expenditure incurred on activities associated with R&D project work could include:

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• Staff salaries, employer class 1 National Insurance Contributions and employer pension contributions
• The reimbursement of employee expenses might also qualify where certain conditions are met
• Borrowing staff from group companies
• Payments to third parties possessing relevant expertise for your work
• Additional labour resource via agencies or freelancers to work with in-house staff
• Software licensing fees
• Utilities (heat, light and power)
• Consumables (materials and equipment used by the R&D process)
• Payments to the subjects of clinical trials

No, your company can use third-party companies or individuals to fulfill its requirements for expertise. You may find that you have a mixture of both directly employed staff and contractors.

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However, care is needed to establish who is entitled to claim relief where subcontracting arrangements are in place.

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In addition, where third parties carry out their work outside the UK, the associated costs will no longer be eligible for inclusion in an R&D claim. Very limited exemptions from this exclusion apply.

Your company has 2 years from the end of its accounting period to make an R&D tax credit claim.

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However, if this is the first time your company will claim or your company hasn't made a claim for a few years (there is a 3 year look back), you will need to inform HMRC of your intention to make a claim within 6 months following the end of your accounting period. If you do not do this, you will not be able to make a claim.

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There are nuances in the rules for the look back to establish whether the advance claim notification submission is required. So it's always best to seek professional advice before the end of your accounting period, to avoid missing out on an opportunity to apply for this tax relief.

RDEC stands for R&D Expenditure Credit and ERIS stands for Enhanced R&D Intensive Support.

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The rates of relief differ (the ERIS scheme can return up to 26.7p for every £1 of qualifying R&D expenditure whereas under RDEC, the rate of return is either 15p for every £1 of qualifying expenditure for profit makers or 16.2p for every £1 of qualifying expenditure for loss makers) plus the methods of calculating the tax credits in the corporate tax computations are currently different.

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ERIS is only available to loss making SMEs that meet an R&D intensity threshold.

Yes, R&D tax credits are intended to fund your innovation journey, not just the end result. Your project may never find a solution that goes to market but your company can still apply for R&D tax credits to fund your qualifying development work.

The goal of HMRC is to process claims for a payable credit within 28 working days but some can take longer depending on the compexity of the claim or the complexity of your company's wider corporation tax affairs. It can also depend on whether the application is selected for a compliance check (an enquiry).

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Applicants should be aware that HMRC processing a claim does not mean it has been "approved". HMRC does not approve claims and they may not even have looked at the claim despite the credit being paid out. R&D tax credits fall within the Corporation tax Self Assessment Regime. This means if HMRC wished to check compliance, they would open an enquiry within the permissible time limits.

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The only way to know if your application has been accepted by HMRC is if they open an enquiry and there is no adjustment.

No, your work must be undertaken within a corporate entity within the scope of charge to UK corporation tax.

The people with knowledge and skills relevant to your industry who can apply scientific or technological understandings to devise potential methodologies which take theoretical designs or concepts and turn them into practical solutions. People such as software developers, chemists, scientists, engineers, for example.

R&D takes place when the experts in your industry cannot easily produce a solution based on their knowledge or what they can deduce from publicly available information. They will use their understandings of how to combine knowledge and resources to create new or improved knowledge and/or capabilities within your industry.

Your company must not breech the following criteria for 2 consecutive accounting periods:

Fewer than 500 employees
And either an annual turnover of < €100m OR Gross assets of < €86m
Data for companies that are part of a group or deemed to be "linked" may also need to be considered for these tests.

Research and development tax relief funds scientific and technological innovations and advancements.

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Cash resources are made available through reducing corporation tax payable if your company is trading and profitable or through applying for a payable cash credit if your company is not yet making taxable profits.

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R&D tax credits can augment other sources of funding such as grants for example.

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There's a thorough process to go through in order to determine your eligibility and make a claim but your company could receive a significant tax credit to support ongoing investment in development work - if handled correctly, the funding can be accessed in a timely manner shortly after your financial accounting period ends. The relief can be claimed each year your company undertakes eligible work and scales with the level of expenditure invested in qualifying R&D activities.